Garden prep in the winter

[lhamilton1807]

Last summer I picked up an old copy of a book called “Lasagna Gardening” and immediately recognized the method. Years before I had made a large compost pile out of arborist chips and grass from the yard (1-3” layer of grass, then 4-6” wood chips) that was 12’ long x 6’ wide x 4’ high. The next spring the most glorious soil was pulled out of that pile and worms were crawling everywhere in the bottom 3’ of the pile. I had squash & tomatoes growing like crazy with minimal watering and no fertilizer.

Lasagna gardening does the same thing but right on the garden bed. Put down an overlapped layer of clean cardboard or 5-6 layers of newspaper, then layer greens & browns 12-18” thick in fall or winter. By April I hope to have nice fluffy stuff I can plant directly in.

Nice thing is, all the ingredients are free

• moving boxes from Craigslist (1st layer)
• arborist chips from getchipdrop.com or leaves from the trees in fall (brown layers)
• compost or veggie scraps from home (green layers)
• coffee grounds from Starbucks - they give it away by the bucketful (green layers, high in nitrogen)
• aged manure from local farmers (green, high in nitrogen)

So far I have a 4’x24’ garden bed with a 2nd layer of chips over compost/veggies and coffee grounds. I have enough chips for one more layer - time to start collecting from Starbucks since my big compost bin is empty now.

[Painthappy]

Nice! My parents have been using the grass clippings from their lawn in their garden to keep the weeds down between rows and then till it all in at the end of the year. The key there is to make sure you don't have pesticides in the grass. They've been collecting the fallen leaves, running them through some DR style chipper and using those also.

I hope to get back into gardening this year as I plan on being in one spot now so I can do it. Ordered seeds and everything all ready. The garden needs a make over, but I'll have to keep some of this in mind and start keeping my scraps and coffee grounds.

[lhamilton1807]

Yeah grass clippings are great. I understand that tilling can disturb the soil structure so I’m trying this method. Cardboard kills the weeds here.

The idea is to add at least one layer each of green & brown each year to feed the soil, but tilling is never necessary. It just breaks down and adds to the top. Rain & watering the plants trickles the nutrients down and after a few years it’s really light & nutrient rich down deep, too.

Would love to see your garden! Glad you got seeds already!

[William the Third]

Be careful about what leaves you/they include. I have a huge black walnut tree in the back yard. One year I had some really amazing tomato and pepper plants, the next year I couldn't get them to grow at all. What changed between the two years is that I took the fallen leaves from the black walnut in the fall, and added them to the soil in the raised beds/drums I grew in. Turns out walnut leaves contain juglone, which is highly toxic to nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes)

[lhamilton1807]

Really good point. Walnut is also a poor choice for wood chips. It takes at least a year for the toxin to dissipate.